Call for regulation of herbal medicine after man's death

Published on Monday 3 March 2008 21:13

FOOD supplements and herbal medicines should be regulated like prescription drugs, a doctor said yesterday at an inquiry into the death of a man taking a popular remedy for arthritis.

Norman Ferrie, 64, died of liver failure within weeks of starting a course of glucosamine – which is made from crab and lobster shells – to treat joint problems.

A liver expert told a fatal accident inquiry of two other similar cases in the Tayside area.

Dr John Dillon, a consultant gastroenterologist at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, said the public should be warned about the potential danger of supplements and herbal remedies.

He told the inquiry at Perth Sheriff Court he was confident that Mr Ferrie's liver had been normal and something had attacked it over a period of a few weeks.

Dr Dillon said: "He had been taking glucosamine to help with pain and arthritis in his joints. The dating of his illness was within a very short time frame of starting to take that.

"We had two other cases where the patient became ill after taking this. We were becoming suspicious of glucosamine causing a reaction and causing liver failure."

Mr Ferrie, from Invergowrie, started taking the glucosamine tablets in April or May 2004 and was extremely ill by mid-June.

He was admitted to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee on 30 June, but suffered liver failure and died in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on 3 July, 2004.

Dr Dillon said: "We have an association between glucosamine and this event and that is clearly very worrying. People need to be aware of the fact there may be an association between this and liver failure."

He added: "My advice would be that if a patient became aware of a difficulty after taking glucosamine then they should stop taking it immediately."

Dr Dillon called for supplements like glucosamine and also herbal remedies to be regulated and tested in the same way as licensed prescription drugs.

"Glucosamine is a complex compound derived from crab shells, lobster shells and shrimp shells...

"It is a drug which has a potential benefit in reducing joint pain, but it is still a controversial area. It is effectively a food supplement. We should treat it in the same way as licensed medication.

"We should treat herbal remedies and cures in the same way. Most of them are probably relatively safe because they are largely ineffective."

The Food Standards Agency said glucosamine was classed as a food supplement under the EC food supplements directive.

"If certain claims were to be made however, for example to treat, prevent or cure a disease, this would take such a product into the realm of a medicine," a spokeswoman said.

A spokesman for the British Herbal Medicine Association said moves had already been taken to improve the safety and quality of herbal medicines.

He said an EU directive meant that stronger regulation of herbal remedies was already due to come into force in 2011.